“I know none whatever,” said the priest drily.
“That merely means that I have no claim on your confidence. But, in short, do you not know what my wife proposes to do? I hear she intends to fly with her lover.”
“Sir,” said Paoletti sternly, “I know nothing whatever of what you expect me to tell you; I never intrude where I am not invited, and it is a matter of perfect indifference to me whether the guilty persons escape or no. I am here to watch and pray by the body of a sainted daughter and friend, whose spiritual director I had the honour to be.”
“I know it.—But you are respected and esteemed by all. Don Pedro highly appreciates you; my wife is very religious, and when she is in trouble she likes to talk about the Virgin del Cármen, and the saints. It might have happened that she should have sent for you to console and strengthen her this morning, and this evening you might—how can I tell? You might have known things of which I am ignorant, and you might—you might, just possibly, have been able and willing to give me some information and extricate me from my position of uncertainty.”
“I know nothing; nor, if I did, could I lower myself to play the part of the spy and tale-bearer, which you seem to expect,” exclaimed Paoletti rather hotly. “You do not know me; your worthy uncles have failed to explain to you the sort of man I am. My office is to console the afflicted and reprove the erring; I have no concern with worldly affairs. Those who need me will find me nowhere but in the confessional. Good-night, Caballero.”
He rose to go. Cimarra detained him, holding his robe.
“But I have much to explain to you,” he said. “Do not judge me so hastily. If I were to confess, if I were....”
The priest sat down again.
“No, I cannot confess here and now. To you it would be an act of sheer hypocrisy. Such a farce would ill-beseem me. I wish to speak the truth, even though the truth that comes from my lips should deal ruin and terror like ball from a cannon. Allow me, in the first place, to tell you something about myself, that you may the better understand the urgency of my claims.